Miami-Illinois phonology
There is an extensive amount of data on the Miami-Illinois language. The problem with much of the data collected is that little of it was collected by trained phonologists and thus much of it is incomplete or incorrect. David Costa has written extensively on this language, compiling much of this data and correcting it in his book The Miami-Illinois Language. Consonants The consonants of the Miami-Illinois language are typical to the "Central Algonquian" languages. It contains the voiceless stops and affricate p, t, k, tʃ; voiceless fricatives s, ʃ, h; nasals and liquids m, n, l; and the semivowels w, y. The linguist David Costa (2003) notes that "the original Proto-Algonquian consonants *p, *t, *k, * tʃ, *s, *ʃ, *h, *m, *n, *w, *j remain largely unchanged." "Historical Phonology of Miami Illinois Consonants, Chicago: David Costa, 1991, International Journal of American Linguistics, 57(3):365–393, Retrieved 2011-11-6 Alternations between and There is a small number of words in the Miami-Illinois language that have alternations between and in their pronunciations. There are also opposite alternations where occurs instead of . Examples of both of these alternations seem to most prominently show themselves before the vowel . Costa (2003) notes these "examples of words showing for expected follow: /apeehʃia/, /teekweeʃita/, and /neehʃiaani/" Costa, David. 2003. The Miami-Illinois Language . Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Vowels Miami-Illinois has four short vowels, /}} and four long vowels, . Costa (2003) notes that " is a low non-front vowel however it can also be pronounced as a by some speakers. is a back round vowel ranging from through to . is a non-high front vowel ranging from through to . Finally, is a high front vowel ranging from to ." These differences can occur from speaker to speaker and also from word to word. Strong Syllable Rule The most important rule in the phonology of the vowels of the Miami-Illinois language is the iambic metrical rule, which is referred to by David Costa (2003) as the strong syllable rule (SSR). Syllables in this language are considered either strong or weak depending on whether they occur in an even or odd numbered spot within the word. Counting from left to right, the even numbered syllables are strong and the odd numbered syllables are weak. However, a long vowel is always considered strong and the syllable count is restarted from this point. Anytime a short vowel comes after a long vowel it will always be weak because the count will have started over and it will occur in an even-numbered syllable. Vowel Devoicing Rule One important rule for the phonology of Miami-Illinois is called the "Vowel Devoicing Rule." In Miami-Illinois the weak vowels are devoiced any time they occur before a preaspirate. If a short vowel occurs before a preaspirate it will be devoiced if it follows a long vowel. This will also happen if it occurs in an odd-numbered syllable. However, if the vowel is in a strong syllable (or an even-numbered syllable) this rule does not apply. As Costa (2003) states it, "a vowel in an original second syllable can be devoiced only if a long vowel precedes it, thus rendering the vowel odd-numbered for the syllable count." Accents Aside from the "Strong Syllable Rule" (Costa, 2003), there is separate system of accenting in the Miami-Illinois language. In this rule, the syllable count begins at the end of the word and goes backwards towards the start of it (unlike the Strong Syllable Rule, which begins at the beginning of the word and goes forwards). Vowels in both weak and strong syllable can be accented. It is most common for words in this language to take accents on their penultimate syllables, though if a weak syllable is subject to devoicing, it can not receive an accent. This shows that the devoicing rule comes before the accent rule. References External links * Category:Language phonologies